Balance (52 page)

“I don’t expect he’ll be worried about much shortly.”
 
Rena
offers
.

T
en
-
minutes
later
,
the man
heads
to the
dance floor
with an obvious case of vertigo, waving to Rena and gesturing
he’ll give her a call,
eliciting
another round of laughter
from their party
.

Meg and Rena
wait an hour before repeating the same
deception
on the other
predator, reversing their roles
with similar results.

Pulling
Rena close, kissing her temple,
Michael
whisper
s
,  “
I think we have a problem
. 
T
he two lone women
appear to be
a team.”

F
ix
ing her eyes
on his
,
she
tap
s
her temple once, indicating
her concurrence
.

Michael
has several concerns
.
  Is
it
only a
two-person
team?
Is someone
outside, as he would be?  Who’
s the mark and why? 
M
ost important,
what’s
the objective
?
  Needing to make sure none of them the
quarry
,
he
suggests heading
down to the dance floor,
rely
ing
on Rena to determine if there’
s a handoff to new agents.

“If you don’t mind,
I have an idea
.
It might provide us a distraction.
” Meg
offers
coyly
, “
I’m going to need our new friend’s wallet.”

Worried
, Michael
reluctantly
hands
her
the wallet.

Meg
starts toward the
bar,
hesitates,
and then
turns back to Waters and winks,
“Wait for me at the stairwell.”

N
odding, his curiosity peaked, he
watches as
she
approaches
the second predator, just starting to feel the effects of whatever he put
in
her drink.
Meg
whispers
in his ear than walks away toward the bathroom
s
.
 
The predator, t
ak
es
a moment to register
whatever she said to him,
then
fumbles
for his wallet. 
Frustrated, u
nable to find it, he gets up and heads toward the bathrooms
.
 
Michael, Rena and Waters
’
are struck speechless
when, for no apparent reason,
the man attacks the lone woman
seated at the bar
.  The assault on her
colleague
draws the second woman
into the fray.

P
u
lled into the melee as she exits
the bathroom
,
Meg
escapes
the chaos
taking
several pictures with
a
cell
appropriated
at some point
during the
altercation
. 
T
ak
ing
several random ph
otos of the
room’s occupants,
she
re
joins
her companions
waiting at the top of the stairs
.

R
emain
ing
on the second floor, covering their exit
,
Waters
signals the driver for pick up.  T
he rest of the
ir
party descen
ds
to the first floor.  Rena and M
eg quickly scan the
room
. 
S
till earl
y
,
the dance floor lightly populated
, n
o one stands out or seems any
more
interested
i
n the group than expected,
especially
considering how
the two women
are dressed
.  All logical strategic locations for surveillance
remain
unoccupied
.

Michael
,
watching R
ena
,
sees her tap her temple
.  He
proceeds to
the front ent
rance, slipping out to surv
ey the exterior of the building. 
G
one for no more than a
minute
, he steps back inside,
captur
ing
Rena
’s
attention
.
Michael
subtly
tap
s
his temple
once
.

Rena
turns and
winks
at
Meg.

Looking
up the stairwell,
she
blow
s
a kiss to
Waters
.
 
W
ait
ing
for him at the front
door
, they
leav
e
with Michael and Rena.  All four cli
mb into the waiting limousine.

Once the doors are close
d
and the car on its way, they all start laughing.
 
Rena sitting next to him,
Michael
turns to Meg, “What happened in the bar?”

L
aughing
hysterically
,
Meg
wip
es
her eyes,
working to
compos
e
herself, “I
told the popper
,
” losing her
poise
for
a moment,
“
if he met
me in the bathroom
…
for $100
I’d give him a blowjob.”

L
aughter
erupts in the back of the limousine
.

Calming
himself,
Michael
asks, “
W
hy did he attack the women?”

“I dropped his wallet o
n the bar
beside
he
r.
H
e was so sloppy and
excited
…
I
hoped he’d trip on her trying to get the money.  He mus
t have thought she nicked it, e
ven better.  Oh
,
by the way, the immersion guys might want these.”
 
Meg hands
two small clutches to Rena.

Waters
stares
in amazement, “Are those
,
theirs?” He asks.

She
smiles
impishly
and
nods.

He
regards
her
with
warm
admiration, “Yo
u were amazing
.”

Meg, due in combination t
o her attraction, the adrenalin and
the
many demonstrations
of affectio
n between Michael and Rena
,
sidles up to
Waters
and kisses him passionately, holding his face in her trembling hands
.

Michael, averting his attention partial
ly out of respect
,
looks at Rena
.
She looks
up
at him, smiling
, knowing
.  He doesn’t
wear
the
same
cheerful
look on his face.  He
taps his temple once, implying ‘I know’
.

Sliding
in
next to him,
putting her arms around his neck,
she
lean
s
into his shoulder
and
whispers, “
N
ot
entirely
.”

The four enjoy the
two-hour
ride back to the
Bunker
, Rena and
Meg
both fall
ing
asleep
curled up on their dates
.
 
Waters
sits quietly staring
out the window
.

“
S
he’s pretty amazing.”  Michael comments
.

“I know
.
”

“You realize this complicates things.”

“Yes
,
it does
.”

“Then we’ll keep it quiet.  I’ll have Rena talk to Meg.  No one will know.”

“How long have you known?”
Waters
inquires
,
his concern apparent as he
turn
s
to
face
Michael
.

“
This morning
… It didn’t take a brain surgeon to realize.  Always under evaluation.”
He
reminds
.

Rena shifts her posi
tion a little.

Michael
gently
places
his hand on
the
side of
her
face
and l
ightly
he
taps her temple, once.

She smiles.

Th
e next morning Michael
sit
s
in the
Ready Room
,
quietly
reviewing information
acquired
from the two
agents
,
uploaded
by the
Immersion Team
earlier
.

Rena walks in
wearing her robe
, having just taken a shower. 
Wrapping
her arms
around him from behind, she
kisses his
neck
.

Michael ignores her
.

Still nestled to his neck
,
she whispers, “I did it for her.”

“You realize you may have killed him.”
He
replies coolly.

“I may have saved her.”

“You
used me
.”
Michael chides
.

“Ah
,
so you
’
r
e
upset about the PDAs.” 
M
o
v
ing
around to face
him
,
push
ing
his chair
back, she slides
o
n
to
his lap
,
straddling his hips
.
H
er robe
opens, exposing
more
of
her body and under
garments than a modest woman
would dare
.
S
he
gazes
intently
into his
eyes
.